A former sorority sister of one of the four students killed just steps from the University of Idaho campus in 2022 is shedding light on the weeks of fear that followed the tragedy.
“It definitely opened people’s eyes to real life,” Natalia Zieroth-Chaumont, Kaylee Goncalves’ former sister at the Alpha Phi sorority, told the Idaho Press.
Despite the visible security presence on campus throughout the 2022-2023 school year, Zieroth-Chaumont said she came to realize “even super safe places still have their dangers.”
Goncalves, 21, and three others — Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, and 21-year-old Madison Mogen — were killed inside the girls’ rented home during the early hours of November 13.
Moscow police received a call just before noon Nov. 13 for a report of an “unconscious person.”
Officers found the four lifeless students on the second and third floors, police said.
The victims had been stabbed multiple times between 3 and 4 a.m., and some showed signs of having tried to fight back, police said.
Two other roommates were on the bottom floor of the home at the time of the attack and survived, police said.
One of the surviving roommates was later revealed to have come face to face with the killer hours before the police were called.
The school will be posthumously honoring the slain students at upcoming graduation ceremonies, Fox News Digital reported.
Zieroth-Chaumont, a senior, told the Idaho Press her role as a residential adviser prevented her from being able to attend classes remotely, but many other students decided not to return to campus.
“There were a lot of girls that didn’t come back after Thanksgiving,” she reportedly said.
Police arrested Bryan Kohberger, a criminology student at nearby Washington State University, at the end of December 2022.
Kohberger, who was living close to Moscow in Pullman, Washington, had allegedly remained on campus for weeks after the murders before making a cross-country drive with his father to his home state of Pennsylvania.
The now-29-year-old was charged with felony burglary and four counts of first-degree murder for the violent stabbing deaths of the four students.
He is due to appear in a Latah County court in June for a preliminary hearing to determine whether the case will go to trial.